Life of Galileo

Life of Galileo is a 1938 play by German playwright Bertolt Brecht. The play was first performed in 1943 in Zurich, accompanied by music by German composer Hanns Eisler. The play chronicles the illustrious but tragic career of the Italian philosopher and astronomer Galileo Galilei, with particular attention to his persecution, trial, and punishment by the Catholic Church for sharing his scientific findings with the world. Central to the play is the tense power dynamic between dogmatic religious belief and scientific truth. Brecht’s play is highly sympathetic to Galileo’s perseverance in a battle against the Church in which the odds were overwhelmingly stacked against him. Life of Galileo is a tribute to one of history’s most impactful scientific minds, as well as a vindication of his search for scientific truth that might liberate people from their own ignorance.

The play begins with Galileo and his housekeeper’s son, Andrea Sarti. Andrea, Galileo’s future protégé, listens as Galileo interrogates the Ptolemaic assumption that the earth is the center of the universe. Galileo argues that it is time to dispose of obsolete scientific truths and to replace them with new ones that accurately model reality. Galileo also challenges Ptolemaic physics, which holds that the earth is a fixed object surrounded by movable ones. At first, Andrea is unconvinced. He talks about Galileo’s theories at school, and they soon come to the attention of his mother, Mrs. Sarti. Mrs. Sarti worries that Galileo is distorting Andrea’s concepts of reality, while neglecting his basic responsibilities, such as staying out of debt.

In the next scene, Galileo reveals his telescope to the world. The invention, merely a novelty to the general public, rocks the scientific community, who understand it as a tool that can improve current models of the universe and ultimately educate the public. The plot then shifts to the night of January 10, 1610. Joined by his colleague Sagredo, Galileo uses his telescope to observe the moon. On this night, they discover that the moon does not create any light of its own - it reflects light from the distant sun. This insight provides strong evidence for Galileo’s theory that the earth is not the center of the universe. Galileo wants to immediately publish his findings for the benefit of science, but Sagredo tells him that he will be perceived as insane. Galileo writes to Cosimo de’ Medici, the Grand Duke of Florence and one of the wealthiest men in Europe. He tells him that he will name Jupiter’s recently discovered moons after the Medici family.

On the duke’s invitation, Galileo and Andrea relocate to the Medici palace in Florence. When Galileo shows Cosimo the Copernican theory of the universe, Cosimo rejects it. Medici’s own scholars tentatively reject the Copernican model and side with the earlier, Ptolemaic system that positioned the Earth at the center of the universe. To inquire further, they invite Christopher Clavius, the Vatican’s head astronomer, to examine Galileo’s research.

The play shifts forward to 1616. The Vatican’s research center, the Collegium Romanum, finally accepts Galileo’s findings and the accuracy of the Copernican model. The monks fear that the Church will lose credibility should the findings be made public. Further, Clavius continues to deny his researchers’ conclusion. In March of that year, the Inquisition bans Copernican science as heresy. Two Cardinals, Bellarmine and Barberini, ask Galileo to stop pursuing his theory. They argue that it is more important for people to rationalize the universe according to biblical ideas than to understand scientific reality. The Vatican then decides to permit Galileo further study if he does not publish his conclusions.

Galileo stops researching for eight years to study mathematics. However, once he hears that Cardinal Barberini, a scientist, has been named the next Pope, he goes back to studying astronomy, thinking that he will now be protected. In the following years, Galileo publishes his findings widely. The Church names him a heretic and many followers proclaim that he has brought an end to Christianity. Others believe that he has performed heroic acts by dedicating his life to science and openly rejecting the Church’s unscientific dogma. In 1633, Galileo attends the Grand Duke’s reception despite the protests of his daughter, who fears they are in danger. Her suspicion turns out to be true when the Duke arrests Galileo to be questioned in the Inquisition.

After the Church’s first threats, Galileo publicly renounces his research to save himself. He remains the Inquisition’s prisoner for nine years, until 1642. One day, Andrea visits him. Galileo sends him off with two of his works, collectively called the Discorsi, and Andrea reaches Holland with the forbidden books. The play ends as Andrea overhears children talking about a possible witch in their village. Demonstrating that he now believes the value of skepticism, Andrea interjects that it is scientifically impossible for a person to fly on a broom.